Kara's Garden

As this is my first real 'outdoor' garden planted in real live dirt (and not pots or indoors) I am faced with my first summer garden plan. In zone 10b, many vegetables and fruits take one look at the summer sun and slowly turn to a pile of compost. Tomatoes that thrive in February and November take one look at June and turn their leaves in surrender.

Some plants will survive the heat. I'm not afraid for my citrus or tropical fruit trees- they will hold on just fine. I understand there are some veggies that will make it as well- okra, corn and sweet potatoes are a few. Some hot pepper varieties thrive in the sun, too.

I think what I will do is pull all of the plants (!) from both the bean and tomato beds once I have harvested all I can, then turn the soil and put in some green manure. I'll keep the center bed for corn, okra, and sweet potatoes.

What is green manure? It is a crop planted just to turn into the soil and allow to decompose and fortify the soil. Funnily enough, sunflowers (as mentioned in my post yesterday) are a recommended green manure crop for summer! I have also had suggestions of cow peas and aeschynomene (photo at right), another legume crop.

What do you think? Do you think sunflowers are a good green manure crop? Take the poll and let me know what to plant!